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The
Search
Many of the records from World War II are kept in the National Archives
in Washington D.C. There historian Paul Tidwell found the actual
log of the aircraft carrier BOGUE which describes the action of
events surrounding the I-52 on June 23rd and 24th, 1944. Also found
was Commander Taylor's report of how he located and sank the I-52,
logs from other ships in the task force, and even the war diary
of the U-530. The pages contained the secret of the location of
the wreck of the World War II Japanese submarine I-52. Paul Tidwell
had been looking for the I-52 and other historical shipwrecks for
many years.
Paul
sponsored an expedition to search for the sub, and hired Ted Brockett
of Sound Ocean Systems, Inc. to manage the project. Ted in turn,
relied on Nauticos Corporation, at the time called Meridian Sciences,
to fill key roles, with Tom Dettweiler serving as Operations Director
and David Wyatt responsible for the operation of the ORION sidescan
sonar image processing system. Jeff Burns, Nauticos' Director of
Marketing, was also aboard, standing watches and documenting the
events of the cruise. Assisting Tom was Sound Ocean System's Bob
Cooke, a seasoned veteran of ocean exploration. The Russian R/V
Yuzhmorgeologiya and its equipment were used in this deep water
search operation.
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Avengers in Flight
The
chronicle of the discovery of the I-52 begins with the mobilization
of the ship, crew and equipment, staging from Bridgetown, Barbados,
in the warm, sunny Caribbean.
Barbados,
April 10, 1995
Tom Dettweiler, David Wyatt and Jeff Burns met with Paul Tidwell
to discuss the details of the operation. The technical challenges
were clear: the wreck was expected to lie in depths near 17,000
feet, where water pressures approach 8,000 psi. Instruments must
be towed or dangled at the end of miles of armored steel cable,
which provides tether, power, and telemetry to and from the cold,
absolutely dark depths. Battle damage and the tremendous implosive
force of the crushing seawater would likely leave the wreck in small
pieces of debris, rather than an intact hull.
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Because light can travel only a short distance in seawater, photography
or video cameras are ineffective for undersea searches, where dozens
of square miles must be combed to have a reasonable chance of finding
a wreck. However, swaths of ocean bottom up to many kilometers wide
can be painted by the use of sonar. The sound that is generated by
the sonar is reflected, recieved, and processed to produce a sonic
image of the area. Today's technology produces images at resolutions
adequate to detect a metal hull or debris field. In this way, the
crew hoped to locate the wreck of the I-52.
100KHz Enhanced Sonar Image of the I-52. |
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